News
Local

London’s budding film sector will release two feature flicks this year with several more on the way.

Tapped Out, a martial arts movie filmed almost entirely in London by Hackybox Pictures, was released last week in Canada and is available on pay-per-view, online and DVD.

Later this year, the horror flick Kingdom Come, filmed last year by London-based Matchbox Pictures, will be released. Production will start on Cheat, a thriller that will be partly supported by the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.

Tapped Out, based on the 1984 hit Karate Kid, stars London native Cody Hackman and Hollywood veteran Michael Biehn. It’s the first feature film released by London-based Hackybox Pictures.

The film was shot in 2012 in locations that include Victoria Park, Carling St. and the former Central Library on Queens Ave.

Earlier this month Hackybox started production of its second feature film, Gridlocked, an action film starring Dominic Purcell, star of the Prison Break TV series and Hollywood veteran Danny Glover.

Geoff Hart, one of the producers, said some scenes will be shot in London in late August but most of the filming will be done in downtown Toronto and Etobicoke.

“We have the experience from Tapped Out but we are no longer in our home base and it gets a little more challenging. We have the intention to keep doing things in London as much as we can.”

Once Gridlocked is completed, Hart said Hackybox will start working on Ghost Station that will be set in haunted subway station.

Kingdom Come will be the second feature film for Matchbox Pictures, following the release of Devil Seed in 2012. A international distribution deal was recently signed with Uncork’d Entertainment. Producer/director Greg Sager is hoping for a Halloween release date in North America.

“If we are doing our job right, it will get easier and easier.”

The film’s creepy locations were shot last year at the former Southwest Regional Centre south of Chatham. A freeway crash scene was shot on Highbury Ave. in London.

As Kingdom Come hits the market, Matchbox will start production on Cheat, a psychological thriller that will be shot in London.